I'm excited to say the results are
just back from our second annual eye-tracking study of major search engines. (You
can see my column on our first-year results here.)
As you may know, eye-tracking labs
study what real-life people's eyes -- and mice -- do when they look at
something on a computer screen. The final report, a four-color heat map, reveals
what was seen and what was not, how far people scrolled down, and where
they clicked (including things weren't even clickable, which happens more
than you may think).
Naturally one goal of this year's
study was to determine if anything major had changed since last year. Turns
out, one of the biggest changes is something every marketer should pay close
attention to:
The OneBox is that quick list of hotlinks that Google often places at the very top of the
standard organic (natural) results listings. Although
what Google uses the OneBox for is a moving target, as of press time the
search engine often posted a list of these types of links:
* local
search results (especially critical for brick-and-mortar retailers)
* Google
News headlines
* stock
symbols
* scholarly articles
* product lists drawn from online catalogs
* major
sections of your site that get significant direct traffic.
As
noted, there's a lot of flux in what specifically Google is placing in the OneBox. For example, product hotlinks also contained in Froogle used to be there
far more often than they are at present.
You should periodically review how Google
uses this OneBox, for two key reasons:
1) All
OneBox clickthroughs are free. These are organic results -- not pay-per-click (PPC) -- so you
don't pay for them. On the other hand, you can't control them either. Only
extremely thorough search engine optimization can help you out.
2) According
to MarketingSherpa's new eye-tracking study, search users pay more attention to
the OneBox listings than to almost anything else on the search results page. Paid
listings, especially the right-hand column AdWords ads, are getting periphery
attention … if any at all.
Don't
believe me? Take a look at the eye-tracking heat map results for yourself in this
PDF report (open access, no registration requested):
The major question from marketers that our research team fields in response to these search-results heat maps is inevitably "If no one ever looks at the right-hand
column of ads, why do I get so many clicks on my ads there?"
The
truth is, obviously some people do look at that column. But it's a very small
percentage of total traffic. You may think you received a lot of clicks … but
compared with the total number of visitors who landed on the page with your ad, you got very few. Top organic listings for the same exact search result inevitably received far, far more clicks than your ad did. That's been a known -- and studied --
fact for a half-decade now. Eye-tracking studies merely show you why this is the
case.
What can
help your ad generate more attention? Before you ask that, first do whatever
you can to improve your organic rankings -- especially for OneBox potential.
Then,
start testing tweaks to your copywriting. Aside from raising your bidding, copy is the
only tactic you have to get that attention.
Every
time we've researched copywriting tests for search ads, the marketers could
demonstrate outstanding changes, often with seemingly small tweaks. Two keys to
explore:
1)
Review your direct competitors' copy on the same results page. (You can do this
manually if you're in a fairly small market or use software for more-competitive niches.) Look at the words they use and the words you use. Which
one would the most qualified prospects be more likely to find clickworthy?
Note:
That's not always big savings or the word "free." Sometimes quality
assurances or phrases such as "24/7 customer service" can do much
better for you.
2) Go on
a domain-name shopping spree (especially if you're not a trusted, well-known
brand already). Buy domains that match your top-performing keywords in some
way. Example: If you market CRM software, buy "CRM101.com" and test
it. (Yes, you can have it resolve over to your regular landing page. But you
must own the domain to be allowed to use it even for vanity marketing
purposes.)
Numerous
tests have shown that your visible domain name in a Google ad does double duty as
marketing copy. So why not treat it as such?
